Taiwan Suffers Another Quake

An earthquake jolted Taiwan early Tuesday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The quake, with a magnitude of 6.9 on the open-ended Richter scale, was centered about 45 miles north-northeast of Tai-tung, or 120 miles south of Taipei, said Waverly Person, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo.

In Bejing the day before, a goverment official reported that a strong earthquake struck the arid hills of northern China, but there were no immediate reports of casualties. That earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 5.6.

Taiwanese state radio, quoting government seismologists, said the strongest magnitude on Taiwan Island itself was in Hualien, a seismically active area on the eastern shore. In the capital city, Taipei, the quake jarred residents from their sleep, knocked objects off shelves and set off car alarms.

This one comes a little more than a month after a 7.6-magnitude quake on Sept. 21 that killed 2,405 people. It was centered 90 miles south of Taipei across the island and caused an estimated $14 billion in damage.

On Oct. 22, some 254 people were killed during a quake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale centered near the south-central city of Chiayi.